CMHC’s Q3 profit and revenue down from a year ago

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) saw its third-quarter profit drop compared with a year ago, as the housing market showed signs of cooling.

The country’s largest mortgage insurer says it earned $387 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, down from $467 million in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue totalled $1.05 billion in the third quarter, compared with $1.26 billion last year.

CMHC offers mortgage default insurance for homebuyers as well as loans for multi-unit residential projects and portfolios of loans secured by residential properties.

It anticipates tighter mortgage rules, rising interest rates and a slowing economy to reduce demand for housing and continue to impact its near-term earnings.

The agency says for the first three quarters of 2018, the average CMHC-insured homebuyer bought a home for nearly $276,000 with down payment of 7.7%.

Nearly all CMHC-insured homebuyers chose a 25-year amortization period. Thirty-one percent opted for a variable-rate mortgage over a fixed-rate loan.

The Canadian Press

The Canadian Press is a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.